


All You Had To Do Was Ask

by shyngr8



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Eventual Friendship, Final Hogwarts Year, Fluff and friends, Friendship, Gen, Good Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy Friendship, Hermione Granger finishes her final year, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:15:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27595370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shyngr8/pseuds/shyngr8
Summary: Draco Malfoy decides to return to Hogwarts to complete his final year, just like Hermione Granger. And while they're not friends, they're not enemies either, until an unexpected accident changes their dynamic. OneShot.
Kudos: 12





	All You Had To Do Was Ask

There are some moments in life when instinct takes over. There are no thoughts or logic that can overrule it, and a person just acts on what they have deemed to be the right course of action in that moment. Which is how Draco came to find himself in his current predicament.

Like Hermione Granger, Draco had decided to go back to Hogwarts to finish his schooling, something that pleased his mother no end. It meant a lot of time was spent around Granger, but they were most certainly not friends. No. Definitely not friends. They were not enemies anymore either. A strange, silent understanding of a truce had occurred between them as they went about their lessons together, two of only a handful of students who went back to complete their N.E.W.T.'s.

From their first week, sharing the small living quarters with four Ravenclaws and two Hufflepuffs, Draco and Hermione had almost gravitated to each other as the singular students from their houses, not that it mattered in the arrangements that had been made for this small group of students. Unlike previous years, each student had their own small bedroom that lead to a common room that was half the size of their other common rooms, but adequate enough with it's four comfy couches dotted around the circular room, and a large table, with eight surrounding chairs, placed close to the large fireplace, and a large single window that gave them a view overlooking the lake.

Each morning Draco and Hermione found themselves to be the first ones up. A nod of a greeting to each other was given before they both went down to the Great Hall for breakfast, and then on to lessons, where they would silently sit next to each other. No discussions were had, no notes exchanged, homework shared, or debates had about the difficulty of a lesson.

Except that one time Draco had pointed out that Hermione was too focused on following instructions to the letter in Potions, and that particular lesson required more than that. It needed intuition and passion, as well as understanding. He'd been watching her read every instruction step three times, sometimes four, before going ahead with what was required. She left no room for any errors with how rigidly she followed them. And yet, there was her Laughing Potion not showing any signs of turning the sunflower yellow it should be at this point.

'You should've broken the tip of one of the Knarl quills,' he said, waiting for his mixture to heat up.

'It doesn't say to do that,' Hermione huffed, reading the instructions for a fifth time.

'And if we always followed instructions, we would never discover anything new,' Draco pointed out sharply, 'this is why Severus had issues with the way you learnt everything.'

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, an anger surging through her from memories of Potions classes with Professor Snape. Draco gave her a raised eyebrow and an icy stare, challenging her to start something. She clamped her mouth shut. She had to admit, Draco, even if he hadn't been Professor Snape's favourite student, was an excellent Potions student.

Instead she returned to the Potion and began stirring vigorously, like instructed, as did Draco. Once again, Draco's was the exact shade of yellow it should be, but hers had gone mustard yellow. When she giggled at the potion, it went even deeper into the mustard shade. Seeing that caused Draco to give his potion a genuine giggle, which made his respond by turning a lighter yellow.

A smugness settled in Draco's chest when she gave in and asked what she should do next to improve her potion. 'When you have to laugh uncontrollably, let me know,' he said. And when she did, Draco stood behind her and began tickling her waist frantically causing her to shriek with uncontrollable laughter. Her potion responded beautifully, and she repaid the favour in kind.

'Passion is everything in Potions,' he said when they were leaving the classroom.

After that particular lesson, Hermione had become more open to experimenting with Potions, even wishing she had Professor Snape's old textbook now to understand the subject better. Draco slowly started encouraging her too, the only lesson they could be seen interacting. Sometimes the Ravenclaw students would come closer to see what advice Draco had to offer on the matter.

When it came to the Wound-Cleaning Potion, Draco was in agreement with Hermione on this one; instructions were to be followed to the letter. However, since all eight students had an unspoken understanding during this lesson of helping one another, it was then Draco realised something was going wrong with one of the Hufflepuff's potion after he'd done his usual peering around at cauldrons. It had gone a sickly green ten minutes into the process.

'Sir,' he called to Professor Slughorn, giving a small nod to the offending cauldron as it started to bubble angrily.

'Oh!' Professor Slughorn exclaimed, moving to the bench to turn the heat off it with a wave of his wand.

All the students, Hermione included, had stopped working to see what was happening.

'Quickly, everyone out!' Professor Slughorn instructed, sending a Shield Charm out in front of him. It wasn't enough.

Most of them had managed to take a good few strides away from the potion, which was now spitting out thick blobs of it onto the bench. Draco instinctively placed himself between the Potion and Hermione as she grabbed her bag from under the bench.

'Leave it!' he snapped, pulling her elbow.

They heard the bang before they felt anything. Draco covered Hermione's body with his own, wrapping his arms around her tightly as a burst of air from the explosion shoved them into a nearby bench, knocking over the two cauldrons that still had potions simmering in them. The contents spilled away from them, splashing on the ground and all over nearby bags.

He heard Hermione mutter Protego, her arm up, pointing her wand behind Draco's back. She hadn't been fast enough as a particular large splash of the offending potion hit his back, immediately burning its way through his jumper and shirt, and now his skin.

The hiss of pain he let out alerted Hermione that something was wrong and his grip on her tightened painfully. 'You idiot, Draco,' she cried, anguish in her voice as she started pulling him away from the bench they'd been shoved into.

In the time it took Hermione to get Draco away from the potion, the situation had already calmed down, except for Draco's predicament. He could feel himself sweating from the pain as Hermione let him sink to his knees at the edge of the room, kneeling with him and pulling his jumper over his head. Professor Slughorn was already by them with the Dittany he kept in his pocket. When he dropped some of it onto his back, Draco lurched forward into Hermione. She gently hugged his head to her chest, stroking his hair off his forehead, while the Dittany did its job.

'Best get him to the hospital wing, Miss Granger, before he scars.'

And that was the last he heard as Draco passed out from the pain.

XXXXXX

Draco slowly felt himself wake up, blinking hard against the dryness of his eyes, the view before him blurry at first, but no mistaking the head of bushy curls sitting in the chair next to his bed. He was lay on his front, his neck aching from the awkward angle.

'I wouldn't get up yet, you've got at least another hour of healing,' Hermione said, her head not lifting from the book she was reading.

Draco slowly leant up on to his elbows, moving his head gingerly to give his muscles some relief. There was a tight pull across his back, the skin feeling stretched. 'How bad was it?'

'Bad enough,' Hermione said, closing her book to look at him, concern in her eyes. 'Madam Pomfrey says you'll be fine once that paste has had time to regrow your skin fully.'

Draco grimaced, glad he wasn't able to see the injury now, sinking back down to the pillow. 'Did you call me an idiot?'

'Yes, I did,' she said firmly, the concern replaced with annoyance. 'Why would you protect me like that? It was my own fault I didn't leave my bag.'

'You're right. I should've left you to suffer the consequences,' Draco snapped, wincing at the pain in his skin when his muscles had tensed with anger.

She sighed heavily, putting her book into the bag by her chair. 'I don't understand. We're not friends. We're barely on talking terms.'

Draco sighed too, letting the tension leave his body. 'Neither do I, but a thank you wouldn't hurt.'

Hermione let out a small laugh, nodding. 'Thank you.' She stood up, throwing the bag over her shoulder. They watched each other for a moment before Hermione leant down to kiss his cheek, something he couldn't avoid with how he had to remain in the bed. 'Don't do it again,' she said with a smile.

'Wouldn't dream of it,' Draco said as she moved away. Then he leant up onto his elbows again before she could turn from him. 'Maybe we could be friends.'

Hermione shook her head with another small laugh. 'What is it about men and dangerous situations being a bonding moment?' Draco looked at her with a puzzled expression. 'Doesn't matter.' She turned away.

'Granger?' he called when she reached the door, glad the wing was empty for this. 'I could use a friend.'

'All you had to do was ask, Draco,' Hermione said kindly, giving him a warm smile.


End file.
